The Courage To Lead and Adapt

This month we will explore the role of courage in leadership in today's changing and volatile world. We don't need to be a hero, but we do need to face today's working challenges with boldness and bravery. Courage is part of the solution to today's leadership and organizational challenges, and fear is one of the key instigating and systemic maintaining factors of the problems we see today. Fear casts a very deep and wide shadow. This month we will address ways to reflect on and to boldly embrace courage as a leader.

This month we will explore why leaders need to step up to the plate boldly and courageously. We look at the impact of being a courageous leader, and the dramatic impact of when leaders live and lead in fear. We explore how change and innovation takes courage to challenge the way things are, and the courage it takes to show and embrace vulnerability as a leader. We explore the role of courage in addressing dominant narratives in organizations that keep people stuck and which create toxic leadership practices and cultures. We will also look at why today's problems need to courageously embrace and adopt new ways of solving problems.

Leadership Coaching Corner

Today, leaders face an array of challenges that demand courage, flexibility, innovation, and resilience. Traditional leadership approaches often fall short in these complex environments, requiring a new paradigm that can effectively guide organizations through uncertainty. This requires courage. Adaptive leadership is a transformative style that empowers leaders to navigate change, inspire their teams, and achieve sustainable success. Read the blog on Embracing Adaptive Leadership: Navigating Change, Empowering Teams, and Thriving in Complexity here.

In this blog post, we will delve into the essence of adaptive leadership, its importance, its distinguishing features compared to traditional forms of leadership, the role coaching plays in developing this crucial skill set, and offer seven practical steps to move towards embracing adaptive leadership.

Moments of Reflection

The first step to overcoming fear and leading courageously, is to recognize where & how fear shows up in your leadership life, & the impact it has on you & others. Overcoming fear takes real courage & bravery to face, because not only do we fear the thing we fear, but we fear FEAR itself.

Reflect on these short posts that explore courage as a leader:

• Fear Casts a Deep Shadow
• Acts of Courage
• Speak Up
• Ask for Help
• Standing Out
• Finding Courage in Vulnerability
• Be Brave, Bold and Courageous
• Courage and Humility

Business Storytelling Insider

Storytelling has always been a catalyst and tool for change and innovation. As a narrative expert, I trained in systemic, narrative and discourse approaches, I find that storytelling emboldens a storyteller to find their voice and to invite others to action and change.

Our organizations are full of stories, narratives and narrative artifacts. These invite particular ways of thinking, feeling and doing. They reward some things, and they inhibit and punish others. Not all of our dominant organizational narratives are as good as they claim, sometimes they hide or mask insidious truths about toxic leadership and organizational culture and practices.

We often focus on the dominant narratives in organizations and are unaware of alternate hidden narratives. Hidden narratives are those narratives that are more implicit and not as plainly evident or as explicitly stated as the dominant narratives. These hidden narratives often offer an alternate perspective to the dominant narratives and have a significant impact on organizational culture, processes and behaviors. I spoke at a global storytelling conference about leading adaptive change and how organizational programs and culture are impacted by hidden narratives. This talk will invite you to think critically about the impact of narratives on culture and change by drawing on some key narrative techniques to discover what lays below the surface. The session offered an adaptive narrative strategy for uncovering and dealing with hidden narratives. You can find the recording on "Leading adaptive change: the role of curiosity, narrative awareness, and bravery in organizations" here.

If you are interested in me speaking at your event, please find my Speaking Engagements Booking page here.

Design Thinking For Solving Complex Problems

So what does courage have to do with design thinking? Design thinking is ultimately about understanding and solving problems. We tend to either like to deny and ignore problems, throw ineffective technical solutions, or give the 'optics' of problem solving. So, the willingness and openness to explore problems takes courage to acknowledge, own and want to do something new.

• Design thinking stands apart from our standard problem solving strategies, techniques and tools that we usually adopt in organizations. It takes real courage to want to embrace and adopt news ways of thinking, doing and solving.
• Design thinking does something that a lot of other problem solving approaches and strategies don't do: they involve the end users in the entire process. Historically and still today, I see a lot of leaders solving for problems, without knowing truly what they are solving for, and they solve from their 'precious assumptions' in their 'ivory towers' without ever involving the people who are impacted by their decisions and "solutions". This is one reason why we keep seeing the same problems arise in organizations.
• I also often find that there is a real toxic preoccupation on only focusing on what is going well in organizations and teams, and a real avoidance of acknowledging and addressing challenges or looking for other solutions (but simply replicating the same old solution again and again, in the hopes it will work this time). Here is a very short video on a Design Thinking Technique that allows you to involve your end users in exploring What is working well, What is not working (and what you can do about it), and any other Opportunities.

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About Me

As a leadership coach and talent strategist, I have the privilege of working closely with leaders, helping them uncover their unique strengths, navigate challenges, and unlock their full potential to lead with purpose and passion. With previous experience as a corporate leader in learning and development; business management consultant in HR and organizational change; ex-clinical psychologist; and teacher, I bring a wealth of expertise in driving change for teams, leaders and organizations. As a leadership coach, I offer a unique blend of perspectives and a comprehensive approach to support leaders on their growth journeys.

My education encompasses a range of key areas, including Strategic HR Management; Leadership; Learning and Development; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Project Management/Leadership; Human Behavior; Systems Thinking; and Storytelling for Change. I am certified in Design Thinking. This diverse knowledge equips me with a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of effective leadership and organizational development.

Our Services

Unlock your organization's leadership potential with our tailored suite of leadership development services. From personalized executive coaching to dynamic team sessions, business storytelling coaching and design, and specialized design workshops to solve complex problems, we equip leaders with the skills and strategies needed to excel and thrive today. Backed by evidence-informed approaches we're dedicated to fostering impactful leadership, healthier organizations, and a culture of success. You can see a full list of our services here.

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